Bomb hits Egypt state prosecutor convoy in Cairo

A bomb hit the convoy of the Egyptian state prosecutor in the capital Cairo on Monday, security officials said.

A senior police officer told AFP that top prosecutor Hisham Barakat and his bodyguards had been taken to hospital. Barakat was said to be “in good condition,” the officer added.

Another police official said the prosecutor had been wounded by flying glass from the explosion, which struck in the upscale Heliopolis district outside a military academy.

The bombing came after the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Egypt called for attacks on the judiciary following the hanging of six alleged militants.

Gunmen in the Sinai peninsula, where the jihadists are based, had shot dead two judges and a prosecutor in May.

Barakat has referred thousands of Islamists to trial since the military’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, with hundreds then sentenced to death.